"Hurrican Dean" - a tropical storm, or the second wave of the 50 state strategy?

perusing headlines I saw this:

4th tropical depression forms; may become 'Dean'
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/08/13/tropical.depression.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us

....and my mind skipped to the political. And it gives me the chance to comment on something that continues as a phenom from the 2004 primaries... can anyone else remember when so many candidates in a single field went on to continue to such prominance and make strong contributions for the emerging political strength of the party (note I said emerging - I am staying hopeful in my wordings on this thread) - Kerry - gets the podium again and again making incredible hard-hitting commentary that gets picked up by the media, and he continues to be a pillar in the Senate. Dean chairs the party and implements the controversial but successful 50 state strategy. Clark - his stature continues to grow (along with his ability to garner press) as a very formidable opponent to the war and to bushco in general. While none are running now - each continues to have a huge presence. In past wide-open primaries - the candidates (also rans, as well as the primary winner) tend to fade into the background - with one or two (maybe) later emerging (from 1988 Gore comes back to be VP, Babbage becomes Dept of Interior Secretary). We had a great field in 2004 - a field that continues to visibly impact the party. I thank each of them for what they continue to do.

strategy developed by the Dem party 'consultants' in the mid90s. It assured that divisions could be exploited easily by a compliant and in many cases complicit, press.

Had the 50 state strategy been in place in 2000, we would never have known the horrors of Bush2, because a secure election process overseen by an ATTENTIVE Dem party machine would have countered the rampant fraud tactics utilized by the RNC's machine, and Gore would have won by the landslide he earned at that point.

Yet, somehow, the election fraud was allowed to WORSEN in 2002 and 2004 by the then chair of the DNC. How the heck was that ever allowed by the Dem party?

I agree with your thanks to the Dems who saw the shape the party was in in 2003 and 2004 and chose to work HARDER to change that condition, starting with the election of Dean as DNC chair. No surprise that he has received much support in that role from his fellow primary candidates.

in a nanosecond. Just wish I felt the same about any of the current candidates.

They took the hard knocks while others stayed invisible and hoarded their dry powder to only use this year.

Why the hell not? ;))))